President Barack Obama speaks with five year old Madison Devera as he greets members of the audience at a UPS facility in Las Vegas, Nevada, January 26

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And Tampa….

First Lady Michelle Obama during a visit to a Latin grocery store in Tampa, Fla., Jan. 26. Goya Food, the largest Hispanic-owned U.S. food company, which is committing to being a National Strategic Partner for the United States Department of Agriculture in promoting “My Plate” or “Mi Plato”. Mrs. Obama will also join leading Latino organizations to promote their nationwide effort to encourage health and wellness in their community.

I would follow this President anywhere on this good earth to hear him speak! He certainly speaks for us all – and wow am I first on this one? Hope all the TOD’ers have an awesome morning, noon and nite!!! Go Obama/Biden 2012…our work has just begun!!!

I WILL DEFINITELY BE WATCHING. THE PEOPLE OF LAS VEGAS HAVE REALLY BEEN SUFFERING. MY BROTHER LIVES THERE. THEY NEED TO HEAR PBO…OUR COMFORTER-IN-CHIEF! CAN’T WAIT…BE SMILIN’ AND SENDING LOTS OF ‘O’ LOVE FROM HERE!

Sending a West Coast Good morning to you all. Temps will be in the 80’s today in Los Angeles and I imagine the same for Las Vegas where our compassionate President Obama will be speaking. Looking forward to seeing/hearing him.

Yes in Tampa FLOTUS with the Latino Comunity is just brilliant, FLOTUS will be the closer
just watch I think we are going to see a lot of Dr Biden as well go ladies I love them. PBO will have
the Latino vote around the USA with him. Si se puede , si se pued si se puede.

From Nixon’s plumbers to James O’Keefe’s video smears: How political lying became normal.
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There evolved a new media definition of civility that privileged “balance” over truth-telling—even when one side was lying. It’s a real and profound change—one stunningly obvious when you review a 1973 PBS news panel hosted by Bill Moyers and featuring National Review editor George Will, both excoriating the administration’s “Watergate morality.” Such a panel today on, say, global warming would not be complete without a complement of conservatives, one of them probably George Will, lambasting the “liberal” contention that scientific facts are facts—and anyone daring to call them out for lying would be instantly censured. It’s happened to me more than once—on public radio, no less.

In the same vein, when the Obama administration accused Fox News of not being a legitimate news source, the DC journalism elite rushed to admonish the White House. Granted, they were partly defending Major Garrett, the network’s since-departed White House correspondent and a solid journalist—but in the process, few acknowledged that under Roger Ailes, another Nixon veteran, management has enforced an ideological line top to bottom.

The protective bubble of the “civility” mandate also seems to extend to the propagandists whose absurdly doctored stories and videos continue to fool the mainstream media. From blogger Pamela Geller, originator of the “Ground Zero mosque” falsehood, to Andrew Breitbart’s video attack on Shirley Sherrod—who lost her job after her anti-discrimination speech was deceptively edited to make her sound like a racist—to James O’Keefe’s fraudulent sting against National Public Radio, right-wing ideologues “lie without consequence,” as a desperate Vincent Foster put it in his suicide note nearly two decades ago. But they only succeed because they are amplified by “balanced” outlets that frame each smear as just another he-said-she-said “controversy.”

Jovie. That’s very unfair. I watched the segment and Atty. General Beau Biden did no such thing. He agreed with PBO’s SOTU idea to create a Mortgage fraud task force to make sure banks don’t wrongly foreclose on home-owners, don’t use shoddy practices in mortgages and foreclosures when dealing with home-owners. When they talked about the $20B bank settlement, Beau Biden commended the President for using all avenues in protecting home-owners from big banks and predatory lenders. He said that if this was a GOP administration, the GOP POTUS would never have directed his DOJ to go after these predatory lenders, so people should know that PBO is fighting for them. He talked about how he, Kamala Harris, Martha Coakley and other Atty. Generals are taking a very close look at the $20B settlement and some might agree to take the settlement and some might not. That’s just facts. He NEVER went against PBO and the administration.

For you to characterize his appeareance on MSNBC as such is categorically wrong and unfair.

The thing is, if you know History, it took 25 years for plaintiffs to get the settlement on Exxon Valdez spill.
If you do not go for the immediate settlement, to help economy now, the consumers may not get that money for decades.
And by then, a republican presidency, at some point, may end up covering their asses.
So, in the end, take the settlement.
It happens all the time…

Plus Jovie, the SCOTUS REDUCED the settlement, so going to court would take forever then if they when the SCOTUS will only reduce it because they are so in the tank for business. I don’t see the downside here for PBO to do the $20B.

Thanks UT! I like and appreciate Jovie but sometimes he/she can get real negative. I appreciate your clarification. My prediction is that banks will be paying out more than 20B when all this pans out. All we have to do is remember how BP thought they could pay peanuts for the Gulf oil spill until they got schooled.

Jovie, I’m not “baiting you” I don’t think I have ever done that so saying that to me is really unfair. Maybe I am just too optimistic and maybe your take is more realistic but it just seems you get negative sometimes. I really do appreciate you very much for all the knowledge and information you bring us everyday.

I know that you most definitely are NOT THE ENEMY. You are a valuable part of this blog and maybe it’s good you keep us grounded.

The other side to the argument is that the settlement is most favorable to the banks not the consumers.
I believe this is a debate that is worthwhile and may force a stronger settlement to benefit the consumers.
Kamela Harris CA AG is on the same page…….

In Las Vegas, Obama will also announce the opening of a publicly accessible liquefied natural gas corridor that stretches from Long Beach, Calif., to Salt Lake City. Samuelsohn looked into the future to grab the story: http://politi.co/Ajej5q.

Hi everyone. Can’t wait to see PBO’s speech. Just got back from school run to a new BlackBerry waiting for me from my husband. Had a great day so far and hubby reminded me that I am now the same age that FLOTUS was when PBO assumed the presidency!!!!

When will PBO be returning to the White House? I love it when he is taking his message to the American People, he can be heard without the bs of the media and his awesomeness can be seen and heard by many. I would LOVE, LOVE, LOVE to see him speak in person. Maybe one day!!

I bet he was amazing! I guess I’d be joining you on the floor if I ever met him too. The nearest I ever came to that was seeing him close up in the beast when he was in London and screamed “Obama! I love you!!” He looked over in our direction!! If I ever met him I would probably pass out at his feet, wake up and swear that I was looking into the face of an angel!! Sorry, getting carried away again!
Seriously though I am so pleased that you were able to get to see him speak>

I bet you’ll never forget it Sue and I hope you get to see him again close up you deserve it. I am so with you when you say how much you love him. All my friends know how passionate I am about this great man and I too pray for him frequently, he has a very special spirit.
One of my friends gave me a pair of Obama socks for my collection – I am told frequently that I am obsessed with him (told in a friendly, jokey kinda way of course) and when I look at all I have collected over the years on him I guess I just have to agree!! I guess my ‘Barackitis’ is incurable! Lol.

Pamela he is the best! We’ve been best friends since childhood. He is amazing, he has had health issues all his life and is on disability but he is so determined and strong and caring. In character he is very like our beloved President, I know I got lucky with him. Not only is he a great husband but also a wonderful dad.
Thank you Pamela for your kind comment.

Yikes Sam, I missed your comment until now, I’ve been out for most of the day – HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!! Hope you’re having a perfect day, a gazillion congratulatiosn, I’ve added your card to the post ;-)

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you Chipsticks. I just got back from delivering my Avon orders and saw your card. It is wonderful, you really are a treasure! Love you loads, and everyone else here on TOD. Sorry it took me so long to reply. I have had a great day and it just got a whole lot better finding your card.

Thanks utaustinliberal, I’ve had a great day spent with some wonderful people both physically and here on TOD. Off now to put my lovely son to bed and hear him read to me, then I will settle down and chill out to PBO’s audio book. His dreamy voice always relaxes me.

Chips has certainly touched my life in ways that I am so grateful. There were days when my faith, prayers, meditations, and this site gave me literally physical strength and spiritual calmness of hope to move on into my day. ((((((Thank you, Chips))))))HZ

Hola Yardarm! That person (who gives the term bruja a bad name) is getting some real pushback from what I am reading here. AZ may be figged up in lots of ways but folks here don’t cotton to rudeness and she made us all look bad. It was embarrassing for Arizona. I have already made my feelings well known to her office and with an LTE. I am also urging Arizonans to write emails to PBO supporting him and apologizing for the behavior of our slime sucking goatfigging governor.

The total disrespect of the Gov. of AZ was the set off. However, I thought long and hard how sad for so many beautiful people of that state to be represented by such a small minded, rude, ugly, hateful and vile person. Second, I also felt that she was very inappropriate in not performing her duties as Gov., in that she chose to meet the President of the United States at his plane to welcome him to one of the states within our union, yet she came so divided within our union.

It is one thing to have a disagreement with the President of the United States, but when he comes to your state, you have a responsibility to choose to represent your state by personally appearing, sending someone else to appear to greet him, or just not appearing at all. I truly think that if the Gov. had chosen not to appear, it would have been better for her and the people of her state. However, the Gov. made a decision to greet the leader of the free world there on that tarmac before her citizens and the entire world with an agenda of ugly divisiveness. Plain and simple.

Gov. Brewer has a staff and the WH has protocol. Even this President’s Cabinet has to leave their cellphones in a container before they enter the Cabinet Meeting. At least that was the practice two years ago. If she did not know the correct protocol, she should have inquired about it. Even the President himself has to follow certain protocol within the White House. What makes her think that she can go over the President of the United States.

Also, the Gov. knows that the POTUS has a SS Detail, and they do not play even with governors. There have been known cases of some governors who have openly expressed hate for previous POTUS. These types of incidents played out by Gov. Brewer are not to be taken lightly. She is very lucky that one of POB’s SS detail persons did not come and escort her away from POB. I am serious.

As far as the invitation in the envelope(if that was the case), that was not the appropriate time to do such, especially when she knew that her agenda was to make a reference to a previous comment to a meeting. She has phones, and the WH has phones, and POB has phones. She knows the number. She could have called and requested to meet again with POB. But she chose to make a scene with all of the drama of a off the hook person in front of the POTUS and AZ, and the world. She knew what she was doing.

Being that AZ is just beginning to try to heal from the awful incident just a year plus ago in that very state where she was and still is the governor, don’t you all think that this was not a place for a “finger pointing “confortational spirit to be put on the people of AZ and to those who are trying to put so much behind them? Being that Gabby, Mr. Kelly, Gabby’s mother and father travelled all the way to Washington, DC to be a part of an historic meeting where the POTUS gave his SOTU Speech to a hurting country, in so many ways, and then Rep. Giffords appeared on that floor and had such a beautiful and emotional welcome from her peers , POB, VP, and the world, how could any decent person in their right mind spoil those moments for the people of AZ and the country? Well, Gov. Brewer did, and she knew it. She is an evil person, and evil people do evil things.

However, as I stated on Twitter last night, “One beautiful and classy lady From AZ spoke to the world with class,love, and compassion, while one woman INAZ showed her ass and the entire nation and world saw her”. I rest my case.HZ

With this country’s penchant not to expect much from their GOP political leaders it is no wonder that a woman who received her GED, did not finish community college, but is able to catalpolt to attorney general and governor and be this ignorant is just amazing. How can you run an entire state with such little education while most public employees probably have more education than the governor.

— The EPA has released a new online tool to allow the public to search for data on water pollution discharges. The data can be sorted by location, industry sector, company and pollutant. It is available here: http://www.epa.gov/pollutantdischarges.

WAIT ‘TIL NEXT YEAR: Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood doesn’t think Congress will approve a surface transportation bill this year, he said yesterday at the Transportation Research Board annual meeting. LaHood said the House and Senate might not be able to bridge the gap on two critical issues: length and pay-fors. The Senate has a two-year bill, the House is eyeing five years, and LaHood said he supports Obama’s call for a six-year bill funded by war savings. When it comes to offsets, the ANWR drilling in the House version is a nonstarter in the Senate and proposed Amtrak cuts will be a tough sell, too. The Washington Post has more: http://wapo.st/zEbYp2

Okay I have spent the better part of my lunch break trying to get through to that wenches office. I was put on hold 5 times and then transferred to a phone that just rings and rings and no one picks up. I finally called again and got voicemail this time. My message was simply that never in the history of the Presidency have I ever witnessed such total disrespect for any US President with no regret or apology but then again it’s to be expected from a Republican in leadership to laud this type of behaviour. Then I said rhetorically, “I wonder what’s the obvious difference between this President and the ones before him ” and just left that comment hanging.

BTW has anyone else had trouble getting through to her office? I guess this is a good thing and that many people are calling ;)

Donna, I was listening to Stephanie Miller early this morning and a lot of folks called her show expressing their disgust with Brewer. Many were from AZ. One guy said he was Republican but he felt that she disrespected the office of the presidency. Another lady said that she waited over an hour and they said that they were experiencing a high volume of calls.

I called her office yesterday and left a message. Today, I faxed and emailed. They probably took the phone off the hook. What I have been hearing and reading here is that most Arizonans, whatever their politics, are really pissed off. She embarrassed herself and our state. She was just figging rude!

I’ve been telling Arizonans to also send emails of support and apology to our President, as well.

CUTTING RED TAPE: Well that didn’t take long. A day after President Obama called for speeding construction projects, LaHood announced changes to a major transit funding program. The changes, to the Federal Transit Administration’s New Starts program, will let the program focus more on local concerns and could cut up to six months from review times, DOT said. The details are laid out in a notice of proposed rulemaking: http://1.usa.gov/xrVvqI

By JENNIFER EPSTEIN | 1/26/12 11:57 AM EST
President Barack Obama won’t say whether he thinks Mitt Romney or Newt Gingrich would be a tougher challenger, but, either way, he’s certain that the difference between him and the Republican at the top of the ticket will be stark.

“I don’t really think about that,” Obama said in response to a question about who would be more of a threat in an interview with Univision conducted Wednesday night in Chandler, Ariz., and released Thursday morning. “What I can say is this: That whoever their nominee is, they represent ideas that I think are wrong for America.”

“On a whole range of issues I think that whether it’s Mr. Romney or Mr. Gingrich or Mr. Santorum or whoever else they might decide to select, they represent a fundamentally different vision of America. And it’s not the bold generous forward looking optimistic America that I think built this country,” he added.

Conservative disdain for Barack Obama is so emotionally charged and consistently devoid of facts or reasoning, that the Republicans must nominate a skilled demagogue like Gingrich who can rally the faithful without any concern for the intellectual integrity of his rhetorical prose. No Republican candidate is more qualified to charismatically deliver emotionally charged babble than Gingrich.
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Now honestly, which Republican presidential candidate is more qualified to promote a thoughtless, cynical, selfish, anti-people, pro-corporate agenda than the man who had a secret affair with his high school geometry teacher until he graduated and then married her (he was 19, she 26); the man who shamelessly tried to impeach a President for sexual indiscretions while he was having an affair with a staff member in his office; a man who time and again has proven have less scruples than a Koch brothers lobbyist?

Newt Gingrich is THE commensurate Republican. No one can represent the morals and ethical standards of the Grand Old Party better.

Now, lying witch jan brewer says she felt threatened by our President. I hate to say this it seems like she has mental issues as well. How convenient for this white woman to feign that she is afraid of this big black man. A lying sneaky heifer. She is being called out and now she is clamoring as an innocent party. A snake she is.

Oh, ag..I hear you with that thought. Me, too. She was the last line of defense against the crazy. Now we have crazy all lined up and willing to participate. Hurts my heart.I know he chose the best person for the job, but that one hurt. A LOT.

Rev Al’s radio guest just said that “threatened” comment is code for” white woman being accosted by black man” in our history of race in this country. She was playing to her base. Her kind doesn’t take kindly to the accomplishments by a black man over other white men. There’s also discussion of some whites having been lied to and played by rethugs in the past—–now they realize they are not any better than anyone else, and they are all just reacting. To which I unsympathetically say….Fuck em !

That won’t play very well here. Her son has some very serious mental health issues which she has done her best to hide. People are beginning to wonder if he inherited them from her. Gossip here is that the evil Palin put her up to this. Also she hasn’t made much on that disgusting ghost written book of hers and she will be out of a job in 2 years. Despite how she tried to get around our State Constitution she can’t run again for Gov. She’s playing grifter and hoping for $$$ .

She really should watch her step. There are lots of folks who would just love to recall her sorry wrinkled butt just like we did Russell Pearce.

RALEIGH, N.C. – Gov. Bev Perdue said today that she would not seek a second term citing the partisan politics of the 2012 election.

“We live in highly partisan times, where some people seem more worried about scoring political points than working together to address the real challenges our state faces,” she said in a statement. “And it is clear to me that my race for re-election will only further politicize the fight to adequately fund our schools.”

Perdue, [is] a Democrat and the first woman elected governor in North Carolina.

I don’t know. I’ve been following NC as I have friends there and used to live there myself. As Theo said below she has stood tall on women’s health, education and so many other issues. By not running, feels like she’s rewarding GOP for their obstructionism.

She’s been fighting a tough, good fight out there in N. Carolina – it’s a shame she’s giving up. I recall that she was having to stand up against a bunch of right wing nonsense bills, and she was the only thing between the GOP and the complete abolition of women’s rights. This is bad news.

I’m so sorry to hear that Gov. Perdue will not be running for re-election. You know the no good Republicans tried to pull this voter ID crap here in N.C., but Gov. Perdue veto it. And she was a strong supporter of President Obama. I wish her the best, hopefully we can get a real good Democratic candidate to run.

Key Findings
The January 2012 Franklin and Marshall College Poll finds President Barack
Obama continues to lead his main Republican challengers in Pennsylvania. The Poll
shows that the president’s job performance ratings and personal popularity are
middling, but also that his potential challengers are viewed more negatively than
positively by the state’s voters.

Remember, folks (I’m a grandma, so here’s my grandma speech – mostly to myself), we need to pace ourselves through this campaign. As dastardly as Brewer’s comments are, we have to remind ourselves to breathe, so we make it through the long haul with our sanity in check.

After we verbally take her out, that is. I’ll be calling and emailing her office later (or at least trying to get through).

In the meantime, I’m taking a few minutes to look at the “scary” President Obama, and hear his common-sense approach to building America for the rest of us! Many thanks to that nice UPS CEO for his intro earlier.

Sometimes you just have to give you feedback (tweeting or calling Brewer) and then move on. This only hurts us if we let it. She is not worth worrying about. Make a donation to OFA, sign up for an event, or punch a pillow and think of her, but don’t let her get to us and cause stress or discouragement.

Oh, Jacqueline, as usual we think as one. We cannot spend too much time on the witch of AZ. As I mentioned in an earlier thread, we need to be out collecting petitions for signatures to ensure that the president and other good Democrats are on the ballot in our states. We’ve got to overcome the voter ID laws AND we’ve got to get our D voter registrations up. We also have to round up volunteers to hit the streets. PBO is not giving a second thought to Brewer. She’s not worth his attention. I do trust that she will get hers as will the bigoted judge in GA. There will be thousands of these injustices and outrages on the part of the Repubs in the months ahead. As you said, we need to breathe, calm down and get busy.

“The image of Arizona’s governor wagging a scolding finger at the visiting president on the tarmac at Phoenix International Sky Harbor Airport now pretty much defines this state’s relationship with Washington, D.C., to the world. The image was beaming out worldwide before Wednesday’s sunset….

…diplomatic protocol really does not give room for anger-venting tiffs on the tarmac. Especially with a president of the United States who is visiting your state. Especially in front of the world.”

“You can see what’s going on here. Brewer has taken the presidential meeting and found a way to extract not just a vague importance-boost from it, but money. The formula is simple. Meet with the president. Then run it through a culture war blender, creating an outrage-vignette (elitist Obama condescends to the heartland). Finally, monetize the vignette by using it to grab attention and sell books. Brewer has now done this twice, the first time with her book, and now on the tarmac. Was the confrontation planned? I have no idea. It almost doesn’t matter: benefits accrue either way, and she’s not shy about reaping them. She showed up on Fox later on to chat up the incident….

As I write this, her Amazon ranking is #177. Not Bill O’Reilly territory, but not bad.”

“Want to sell a book? Get into a heated discussion with the President. It worked for Arizona governor Jan Brewer. Sales of her book Scorpions for Breakfast have gone up a whopping 150,398 percent on Amazon.com over the past 24 hours….

Predictably, the review section of the book is getting political. One five-star review notes that it’s “so good Obama was pissed off.”

President Barack Obama may not have many fans in the Republican party these days, but he is sitting pretty with the American public — at least as far as his State of the Union speech from last night is concerned. A CBS News poll following the president’s address showed 91 percent of Americans approved of Obama’s proposals:

She is a sow’s ear that will never be a silk purse. There are always crazies who think disrespect is cool. But she is consigning herself to the trash bin of history with this little charade. And, like her bud, Palin, she will go the way of the dodo bird.

Republicans lie because they have to. Their “base” is made up of millions of gullible miscreants who live for red meat and attacks on “liberals.” They also know the lies upset people and turn them away from the Democratic process and stay home on Election Day, which makes it more likely they’ll win.

When you defend the lies these folks tell, you’re also giving Fox News more credility. The NDAA, for example, has a provision that provides for greater whistleblower protection. What if everyone at FNC adopted the talking point that the liberals are trying to kill “The Whistleblower Protection Bill”? Would you complain? I would, because it would be a lie. Calling the NDAA the “Indefinite Detention Bill” is dishonest propaganda. And when a professional lefties lie or exaggerate to make a point, they’re doing exactly what Fox does as a matter of course.

You can’t celebrate progressive politics and also celebrate those who feel they have to lie to support their point of view. Those views are incompatible.

I am a progressive. A full-on, died-in-the-wool proud LIBERAL. But more important than liberalism is truth. Without it, we get tyranny. If you doubt that, look at the last 32 years. Lies get us tyranny; the truth will set us free.

BEEN UNWRAPPING MY OBAMA GEAR TODAY…YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH…I ORDERED A CLOSET FULL AND EVEN A CAT COLLAR FOR MY ANGEL! I HAVE THIS ONE RESTAURANT I GO TO…THE GOLDEN CORRAL…LOTS OF GOOD OLE’ BOYS GO IN THERE. I REALLY TICK EM’ OFF WHEN I WEAR MY ‘O’ STUFF! TOO BAD…DON’T GET IN MY FACE BECAUSE YOU DON’T WANT TO SEE THIS GIRL’S TEMPER!

Enjoy your Obama gear! I love the cat collar, you will have the best dressed cat on the block!! Not to mention you in your Obama gear. I must get another t shirt or hoodie as mine are all getting a little dog-eared from constant wearing.

THERE IS NO WAY THESE RACIST MANIACS CAN DEFEAT WE OBAMA KIDS…WE ARE ON THE RIGHT SIDE OF HISTORY FIGHTING WITH THE GREATEST PRESIDENT AMERICA HAS EVER SEEN. WE ARE FIGHTING FOR EQUALITY AND JUSTICE FOR ALL AND THIS WHITE GIRL HERE IN KKK LAND CAN KICK SOME ‘A’…I’M NOT AFRAID OF THESE RACIST FOOLS! I WILL STAND WITH MY PRESIDENT!

BTW, Chips, it looks like that cool remix of Obama singing to Al Green from WTFremixer was a ploy to get people to his site so the uploader could unload on Obama. Too bad, it was a cool remix. I won’t link to it.

JUST TOOK A CHIP FLIGHT AND SAW OUR BEAUTIFUL FLOTUS! SHE HAS DONE SO MUCH TO ENCOURAGE HEALTHY EATING IN THIS COUNTRY!!!!! YOU GO MICHELLE! MY POOR HOMELESS…SO MANY OF THEM DON’T HAVE ANY TEETH. IT MAKES ME CRY!,,,BBL!

Sue, I love you!!!((((((((HUGS)))))))) and Thank you for all that you are doing. I know your feeling because when I go to my place of ‘passing the love’ to help, I break down when I drive back home. But we keep strong in our faith and our works. HZ

I have to get President Obama re-elected. I’m making this personal for me. So I have charted out a personal plan to have no regrets on election night.

I plan to start tweeting #noregrets2012 on Twitter describing some of the things we can all be doing for his re-election. Please join me in the venture TOD fam.

I plan to give 1 hour each week to volunteering in some way for the campaign. I can phone bank from home to recruit volunteers or visit an OFA office and volunteer in whatever capacity they need me or register new voters and get I’m In pledge cards signed or get 10 donation each week.

This man is too great to let him slip away from us and concede this country to the crazies.

I hope each of you can look within yourself and dedicate a small portion to your life over the next 10 months to ensuring a win.

I just had the overwhelming need to put this in writing. Now that you all know about it I’ll have to be held to this. :)

+ 1,000,000,000, Donna. I love the #noregrets2012 idea, and, like you, I’d urge everyone to do what they can – although I know most people here are doing that any way. The prospect of losing in November to that vile collection of people is just too painful to even imagine, but we have to imagine it to make us all to do our bit. Thanks Donna.

I’m totally in! I became a permanent resident this week, and it feels very good being able to finally donate to the Obama campaign! I need to set up a donation budget, so I don’t get carried away… I phone banked for the first time last week, and plan to do more – not sure of the regular commitment yet. And I certainly plan to keep myself informed so that I can refute all nonsense I hear and provide timely updates to friends.

Yes! Yes! Yes! Theo, I’m so stoked for you! I know how long you’ve been wanting to donate to PBO and whenever I donate, I put a little bit more for you and others who can’t donate for whatever reason but want to; so congratulations for becoming a permanent resident and donate to your heart’s content. :D

First Lady Michelle Obama during a visit to a Latin grocery store in Tampa, Fla., Jan. 26. Goya Food, the largest Hispanic-owned U.S. food company, which is committing to being a National Strategic Partner for the United States Department of Agriculture in promoting “My Plate” or “Mi Plato”. Mrs. Obama will also join leading Latino organizations to promote their nationwide effort to encourage health and wellness in their community.

WASHINGTON — A Senate bill banning the trading of corporate stocks by members of Congress based on nonpublic political information will see a vote next week, according to Democratic sources working on the bill.

“It’ll be on the floor next week, either hotlined or an actual vote,” one source said of the bill, known as the STOCK Act. Hotlining refers to the process of moving a bill through by unanimous consent.

A separate Democratic aide said that negotiations over amendments were still ongoing, which would make hotlining more difficult. A Democratic leadership aide, meanwhile, would only say that a vote was “possible.”

The STOCK Act, authored by Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) and Scott Brown (R-Mass.), would ban trading by members of Congress guided by nonpublic economic or political information. It would also improve disclosures of all stock trades and other financial maneuvers by members of Congress, by requiring them to publicly detail each transaction within 30 days. Lawmakers are currently granted a full year of secrecy before disclosing such financial activities

Conservative North Florida voters: Romney’s too richBy John Sepulvado, CNN Radio
While media outlets and Beltway pundits might use state polls to gauge the race in Florida between GOP presidential hopefuls Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney, Ron Crum uses poles.

Fishing poles.

Crum, a Republican small business owner in this sleepy seaside town south of Tallahassee, calls Romney a multi-millionaire who expects to get breaks because he’s rich — be it a low tax rate or the GOP nomination.

But former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich, Crum says, is a man who understands the plight of the working class and can articulate conservative principles effectively.

Picking up two fishing rods, Crum says the expensive Penn International, priced at almost $400, is like Romney. Meanwhile, the Jarvis-Walker, which he says does everything the other rod does but sells for about $50, is like Gingrich.

“I got a customer,” Crum continues. “He has about six rod holders on the side of the boat. He’s got six Penn Internationals, and when he leaves port he has them on this side of the boat towards the docks, and when he comes in he puts them on the other side of the boat. We go out there because it’s a good day to be alive, God built a world let’s go enjoy it, but the elitist wants to impress their friends.”

Putting the poles back in the rack, Crum says, “Gingrich, as a capitalist wants to come out here with the working people and the people earn money from the industry of this country. Romney is basically an elitist.”

And for conservative North Florida voters, the term elitist is almost as bad as calling someone a liberal. That label is sticking with Romney, even though both candidates are worth more than many North Floridians earn in a lifetime.

Mitt Romney in particular has used the South Carolina primary to test anti-labor union policies as a campaign issue. His pitch to expand right-to-work laws could lead to Wisconsin redux.

When South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley came to New Hampshire to endorse Mitt Romney earlier this month, it marked more than just a meeting of political expediency. Yes, South Carolina was the next state on the primary calendar. And yes, Governor Haley could help him there.

But the topic of her remarks was something more than a typical stump speech. It was a trial balloon that could become a major issue in this autumn’s general election.

“One of the reasons we’re bringing jobs to South Carolina is that we have the lowest unionization in the country, and I want to keep it that way,” she said at a Jan. 6 rally in Tilton, N.H. “Barack Obama doesn’t appreciate right-to-work states. Mitt Romney appreciates right-to-work states … and I need a partner in the White House.”

Right-to-work states are those that that bar unions from deducting dues from worker paychecks as a condition of employment. Unions see right-to-work as a bid to undermine union financing, capacity to organize, and political clout.

Romney has used South Carolina, which is a right-to-work state, and New Hampshire, which is considering ways to become one, as testing grounds for how such a debate might play out nationwide.

Conservatives see the current campaign cycle as a rare opportunity to undercut union political clout. After historic gains in 2010 elections, Republicans hold the governorships and new legislative majorities in a number of strong union states, including Ohio, Michigan, and Wisconsin. Moreover, labor unions bankroll opposition to the sweeping pro-business agendas that undergird Republican orthodoxy.

I would say that the effect of this will be to unite all unions and their members in support of the president. In the past, whenever a union “endorsed” a Democratic candidate there were still a lot of Reagan Democrats among the unions members who didn’t go along, stayed home or even worked for the other side. This “right to work” call on the part of Republicans should help rally every union member in a fight against a common enemy. There are a lot of votes at stake here and the way the R’s are cavalierly throwing them away speaks volumes about their willingness to go to any extreme even at their own expense.

It’s every reporter’s dream to ask a presidential candidate a question that packs multidimensional dynamite. Univision’s Jorge Ramos had that opportunity yesterday when he asked Mitt Romney if he considered his own self a “Mexican-American,” since his father, George Romney, was born in that country.

Romney sheepishly allowed as how he didn’t think that sort of self-identification would be terribly credible. But it was a tricky question nonetheless, not only because Romney is frantically prospecting for Hispanic voters in Florida right now, but also because it served as a reminder that Mitt’s great-grandparents were polygamists who fled to Mexico (reportedly at the instruction of none other than Brigham Young) shortly before the LDS church officially renounced plural marriage, and the new state of Utah banned it altogether.

Turns out Mitt still has some distant cousins in Mexico, although most of those early Mormon immigrants to that country (including George and his parents and grandparents) fled during the Mexican Revolution of 1912 and never came back.

So it’s not surprising Mitt turned down the chance to claim his own little bit of Hispanic heritage.

Polygamy aside, Ramos’ question was probably as welcome to the candidate as a basket of vipers. It’s hard enough for pols to navigate the treacherous waters of Florida’s various Hispanic groups, including the Cuban-Americans who tend to participate in large numbers in Republican primaries, and immigrants (and their children and grand-children) from Mexico, Puerto Rico, Central and South America, and the Caribbean who now outweigh them as factors in Florida general elections, which the eventual GOP nominee badly needs to win.

What a difference in general philosophy. Countries and cultures around the world have tried to claim President Obama as his own, and he’s accepted all of them. From the Kansas roots of his grandparents, the Irish ancestor from 200 years ago, the Indonesian upbringing, the African father, the Canadian brother-in-law, the fact that he changed flights in Australia as a child… Everyone wants a piece of President Obama, and he is open to all of them.

Mitt, on the other hand, hides his past, and is an opportunist in any acknowledgement of ethnic minorities.

There’s been a fair amount of publicity over the last few months about some of the baleful consequences of new immigration policies in the states, particularly in such Deep South states as Alabama and Georgia. Already, considerable damage has been inflicted on agricultural production as crops rot in the field, unharvested. And anyone living in the region knows that businesses catering to the Hispanic population have been hit hard as immigrants, documented or not, leave—or as Mitt Romney would put it, “self-deport”—feeling less than welcome.

That’s all hunky-dory with a lot of southern conservatives—often the most avid immigrant-bashers because Hispanics are visible enough to unsettle the natives, but not numerous enough to defend themselves politically—but an incident in Georgia this week showed that nativism can bite them where they actually feel the pain.

In the run-up to National Signing Day—the day, rivalled in the Deep South only by Christmas and Easter, when high school football players can sign scholarship agreements with colleges—the University of Georgia football team lost an recruit because he ran afoul of policies designed to keep the undocumented from attending state institutions of higher education. Mark Weizer of the Athens Banner-Herald explains what happened to offensive lineman Chester Brown:

Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI) says Mitt Romney will have to make his pre-2010 tax returns available. That may sound like a predictable demand from a partisan Democrat. But it’s more than that.

Levin may well know more about tax avoidance strategies than anybody in Congress. In his capacity as the Democrats’ top investigator he’s has made extensive inquiries into the techniques businesses and individuals use, including overseas havens, to hide their money from the IRS. And what Romney’s revealed so far troubles him.

“I saw in the paper this morning that the spokesperson for the Romney campaign said that it was just an ‘ordinary’ bank account in Switzerland,” Levin told reporters at a Christian Science Monitor breakfast round table, referring to the revelation that the Romney family held a Swiss bank account in his wife’s name from 2003 until 2010.

EXCLUSIVE: Veterans Call On West Point To Cancel Planned Speech By Islamophobic General

On Feb. 8, 2012, the United States Military Academy at West Point is planning to host a National Prayer Breakfast featuring ret. Lt. Gen. William “Jerry” Boykin, an individual who has a long record of issuing hate-filled rhetoric about Muslims.

Here’s what Boykin has said about Muslims in the past: there should be “no mosques in America“; Muslims worship an “idol“; “Islam is a totalitarian way of life, it’s not just a religion”; “it should not be protected under the First Amendment”; Muslims operate “under an obligation to destroy our Constitution.”

Thanks for all of your prayers for my Dad TODers! Things are looking up and he is out of his coma and recognizing family and speaking. We
still don’t know where he’ll end up mentally and physically yet, but we’ll work with that when we come to it. He’s one tough WWII vet!

blondegirl, I am so glad that your Dad is out of his coma. I am so sorry that you are going through a tough time. Hadn’t seen your previous post but now I know that your Dad is sick I will pray for him. I will also remember you in my prayers, look after yourself during this difficult time and know that we are all thinking of you.
God bless you blondegirl and wishing you and your family all the best.

Corporations Are (Good) People
Posted on 01/26/2012 at 2:00 pm by JM Ashby
According to Mitt Romney, “the banks” aren’t bad people. In fact, they’re just as scared as you are of the Obama Administration and their job-killing regulations and “uncertainty.” Or something

Romney was standing outside a Fannie Mae-foreclosed home in a struggling neighborhood telling a small crowd why they’re having so much trouble. “In this case, it’s because of the banks,” he explained. “Well, the banks aren’t bad people. They’re just overwhelmed right now.”

During a Monday roundtable with business owners struggling in Florida’s hobbled housing market, the former Massachusetts governor told the group that their troubles with banks came because the lenders were worried about staying in business.

“The banks are scared to death, of course,” he said. “They’re feeling the same thing that you’re feeling. And so they just want to pretend that all this is just going to get paid some day.”

Yes. The banks are terrified of going out of business and they’re feeling the same pain the average American is right now!

Mitt Romney laughed off the suggestion on Thursday that if elected he would be the country’s first Mexican-American President. The Univision host Jorge Ramos cheekily asked about Romney’s Mexican heritage, referencing the fact that Romney’s father was born in a Mormon encampment in Mexico.

“I would love to be able to convince people of that,” Romney joked in response. “Particularly in a Florida primary.” But, he added, “I don’t think people would think I was being honest with them if I said I was Mexican-American.”

The Florida primary on January 31 is the first time in this cycle that the candidates have had to appeal to Latino voters. Whereas in Iowa and New Hampshire, Romney was courting white audiences as the far-right candidate on immigration, Romney is now moderating his stance for a Florida audience, where 11% of registered Republicans are Latino. Gingrich has struck a more moderate tone on immigration and Romney needs to win over at least some of this community.

Repugnants are muy estupido! They think all Latinos only understand that “ghetto” language (Spanish) and are too ignorant to read or listen to what they say in English. Both Fig Newton and Robme were behind a door when when brain cells were being allocated.

You are correct. The lean backward channel likes to make the news not report it!!! I would love to hear the President give a speech on how to handle old bar hags who stick their fingers in your face. :-)

Plus, the reporters at the Pentagon are real, live, knowledgeable professionals – unlike the hacks among the WH Press Corps.

Not sure how long I can handle the dry nature of a budget briefing, but I’ve almost enjoyed this part. Mostly because the military isn’t allowed to be political and they all receive their direction from and fully support President Obama!

Speaking of “good guys” in the military, you recall Adm. McRaven, the head of the Joint Special Operations Command, was sitting with the First Lady at the SOTU — representing the Navy SEAL team operations. Here’s a reminder of what he said to TIME magazine (page 4 of the article) … I like the intro, “About Obama, without a question to prompt him, he waxes lyrical and at length”:

Looking at the picture of little Madison and PBO, I was thinking about how many people all over the world resemble those two faces. To me, this is one of the most important things about PBO — he is bridging the old order and the new, literally and metaphorically. That’s why the old order is fighting so hard, and the new hoping so much.

We should expect more of our politicians and pundits than blithely to accept lying as just part of the political process. It is despicable behavior that has made voters cynical and distrustful and created a dysfunctional government in which our leaders struggle to substantiate their particular views despite what is often depraved indifference to the truth.

The primary debates are a lesson in how to obfuscate substance and advance the pretense that candidates actually know how to negotiate their way through the complexities of today’s world. But even when their theories are demonstrably wrong and proven so by events they continue to advance the same rhetorical nonsense in an effort to diminish the president’s position. Despite considerable foreign-policy successes partisans posit the same old bromides that Democrats lack adequate national-security credentials.
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Today the president is being castigated for making recess appointments when Congress is technically not in recess. The irony is that Congress passed legislation allowing the establishment of a federal consumer protection agency but has refused to confirm the president’s choice for its director a tried and true Republican manipulation – – either refusing to make funding available or in this case crippling the ability of an agency to function effectively by refusing to appoint a director.

There are so many ways to cheat the public of proper representation; lying and the pretense of legitimacy are often the weapons of choice.

President Obama will raise the nation’s debt limit to $16.39 trillion after the Senate on Thursday killed a measure to stop the president from adding $1.2 trillion to the total.

After just over two hours of debate, the Senate voted 44-52 to block a motion to disapprove the debt-limit increase, which the House passed overwhelmingly last week. Four Senate Republicans missed the vote.

The $1.2 trillion debt increase is expected to cover the nation’s borrowing requirements until after the November election. A GOP aide said Congress would have to vote on another increase if the administration spends the money faster than anticipated.

Mitt’s lived in a bubble his whole life, and hasn’t had to learn anything other than what he needed or wanted to know. Other people have only provided utility to him, and now he’s finding that his fate is at the mercy of peons (and Newt the Unstable Barbarian) he can’t control, and he can’t manage it. He’s got no golden parachute this time – and you can believe he’s terrified of being a two time loser of the thing he’s always believed he’s been entitled to – the presidency. Newt’s got his shiny scrubbed nuts in a vise, and it’s exceedingly fun to watch.

I think most Americans are unaware of the insider trading going on in Congress. Kind of explains why “the net worth of lawmakers on Capitol Hill has jumped considerably in recent decades,” , this is a good read:

As we all know, much of Mitt Romney’s wealth is derived from “carried interest,” a share of the profits from investments that Bain Capital made while he was CEO. This income is taxed at the same 15% rate as ordinary capital gains, which is why Romney’s tax rate is so low.

But it turns out there’s another interesting tidbit about carried interest that I’ve never heard of before: it’s a great way of passing along a huge inheritance to your kids without paying any taxes. David Cay Johnston explains:

hahahhahahahahhahhahahahhaha!!! Randi wants Leroy to be the nominee, “more than Herman Cain”….hahhahahhahahhahha!!! she is also offering Willard her paycheck, a chance to host her show for 3 hours, he gets to talk about anything he wants for however long. she just wants him on the show. :lol: she was like, “Mitt is the kind of guy who’ll show up. but I want him to talk. It’s when he talks..” he gets in trouble —- or something to that effect.

Can you believe that guy’s math?!!! How does paying the Mormon church more than 15% added to his 13.9% tax = 40 to 50%? then he had the nerve to talk about how basically, before Bain pays him, the money gets taxed at 35% and therefore by the time it gets to him, it’s taxed twice so 35% + 15%= 50%. Whaaaaaa?!!! So everybody, this is the take away, you are being taxed twice, maybe you should take this up with our pinko-commie government. Before you get your paycheck every two weeks, you get taxed twice, the first time your company gets taxed on it’s money, then before the check gets sent to you, it’s taxed again. :roll: what an asshat! :| Does this guy not know he’s being video-taped when he says this shit?! Is he for realzio?

A Media Matters analysis shows that as a whole, news coverage of the Keystone XL pipeline between August 1 and December 31 favored pipeline proponents. Although the project would create few long-term employment opportunities, the pipeline was primarily portrayed as a jobs issue. Pro-pipeline voices were quoted more frequently than those opposed, and dubious industry estimates of job creation were uncritically repeated 5 times more often than they were questioned. Meanwhile, concerns about the State Department’s review process and potential environmental consequences were often overlooked, particularly by television outlets.

After nearly a week on the defensive, CNN’s John King reports tonight that Newt Gingrich’s claim about offering witnesses to ABC News in his defense — to rebut the network’s interview with his second wife, Marianne Gingrich — was not true.

If y’all don’t watch Martin Bashir each day on MSNBC, you are missing a great afternoon laugh. He’s not only intelligent, but his snark about Republicans is just hysterical. He and Rev. Al are the only two who consistently tell the truth about President Obama on MSNBC. Love them.

I just finished watching Martin Bashir’s show and I have to say I love this guy. He is so smart, I wish he’s a moderator to one of these GOP debates. His “Clear the Air,” today is so true. I hope a lot of people get to watch it. Spot on!

Neil deGrasse Tyson, whom I have loved for years because of his way of showing all of us in a stellar way – but especially school children – how great science is, was on Martin Bashir’s show.

Sad, but I’ve never looked at him the same way after he thought (and bragged about the fact) he might be chosen as NASA Administrator, and then when he wasn’t chosen, he started to criticize President Obama with the PL. Grrr. Green-eyed monster.

The historian-candidate’s Florida prospects are fading by the minute because he failed to learn from recent history

By Steve Kornacki

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Let’s quickly review how we arrived at this moment. In early December, Gingrich stormed to giant leads in national and key early state polling and immediately declared that “it’s very hard not to look at the recent polls and think that the odds are very high I’m going to be the nominee.” Then he attempted to segue into the role of above-the-fray front-runner, foreswearing negative campaigning (and apologizing when he slipped up), letting charges from Mitt Romney and his rivals go unanswered, and turning in a dull, unfocused performance in the final pre-Iowa debate.

While he was doing this, the Republican Party’s opinion-shaping class woke up. Most of them remembered — or even had firsthand experience with — the erratic mismanagement, endless ethics controversies, needlessly inflammatory rhetorical provocations, and general poisoning of the GOP brand that accompanied Gingrich’s run as speaker of the House in the 1990s. One by one, they used their platforms to tear into him. At the same time, Romney’s friends at the Restore Our Future super PAC pumped millions into a vicious negative ad campaign aimed at undermining Gingrich in Iowa. The effect of all of this was to kill the Gingrich surge. His numbers plummeted in Iowa and elsewhere and by early January he looked done for.

Ok. I just had my say with Brewer’s office. I said I was disgusted at her behavior. That I noticed a difference in 2 different AZ women yesterday. One that was humble,professional,graceful and appreciative and one that was self serving, rude,unprofessional and a disgrace to Arizona. YET AGAIN! I said that she should write the President a formal apology, and issue a public apology for her behavior as well.
Time to move pass this bitch. She’s already taken enough of my time. How I CAN get back, for real, is turn AZ BLUE!

Ahmadinejad Says Iran Is Ready for Nuclear Talks
By J. DAVID GOODMAN
Published: January 26, 2012

Even as he became the latest and most senior member of the Iranian government to publicly declare his readiness for nuclear talks, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Thursday lashed out at the West over its tough new economic sanctions that he said have hurt the Iranian people.

Addressing students in the southern city of Kerman, Mr. Ahmadinejad blamed the West for what he called its “excuses” for not restarting negotiations and heaped scorn on the United States and Europe over new sanctions, which target Iran’s oil industry. While they have hurt ordinary Iranians, he said, the sanctions have done nothing to weaken Iran’s resolve in the face of “bullying” over its nuclear program.

“You are the real enemy of the people and are putting pressure on them,” the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency quoted Mr. Ahmadinejad as saying. “I admonish you to pave the right track and do not make any excuses while the time is ripe for negotiations.”